Ballade Poems

three stanzas of eight lines followed by a quatrain (or four-line stanza) called an envoy (or envoi)

rhyme scheme: ababbcbC/ababbcbC/ababbcbC/bcbC

final line of each stanza is a refrain

each line is usually comprised of eight or 10 syllables (flexible, but consistent within the poem)

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Here’s my attempt at a ballade:

the revolutionaries, by Robert Lee Brewer

we live large & in charge of all we see or saw or whatever because a rise precedes a fall as a worse comes from a better or a storm breaks up good weather & maybe we seem like we're clowns laughing our way to the never & there's no one to slow us down

so do what you want but don't stall & assume that we're not clever because a rise precedes a fall & best believe we want better than what we have or whatever we lost that you claim you have found our want will swallow us forever & there's no one to slow us down

if you want a word you can call & pretend the line's not severed because a rise precedes a fall & we don't believe your better that you've been selling forever expecting us to hang around we've found a way of whatever & there's no one to slow us down

so lie your lies & whatever makes you feel like you're safe & sound but we're coming for our better & there's no one to slow us down